The present invention relates to a media supply device to be attached to an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a facsimile, and a printer.
In an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile, as disclosed in JP-A-2001-166665, for example, a media feed cassette in which a stack of medias is placed is attached to a main body of the image forming apparatus. To print, those medias are pulled out of the media feed cassette sheet by sheet.
Another image forming apparatus is also known as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,410, for example. In the apparatus, in addition to such a media feed cassette, a media feed tray for manual media feeding is provided and the medias may be placed at another location. The apparatus is able to print on a media whose size is different from that of the media placed in the media feed cassette.
The media feed cassette is separate from the image forming apparatus, and is attached to the apparatus, while the media feed tray is provided integrally with the image forming apparatus. Accordingly, it is difficult to align the media in the media feed cassette with that in the media feed tray. When those medias are mis-aligned with each other, a problem arises that a printing position on the media fed from the media feed cassette is different from that on the media fed from the media feed tray.
The media on the media feed tray is picked up and pulled out of the tray by a pickup unit provided in the main body of the image forming apparatus. Accordingly, it is difficult to secure a satisfactory position accuracy between the media and the pickup unit, and as a result, a separability of the media is poor. Such a problem is also present in the image forming apparatus under discussion.